Ellen Svendsen

Today, Russia struck a passenger train in the Kharkiv region with attack drones. In any country, a drone strike on a civilian train would be regarded in the same way – purely as an act of terrorism. There would be no doubt about the classification, neither in Europe, nor in America, nor in the Arab world, nor in China, nor anywhere else. There is, and can be, no military justification for killing civilians in a train carriage. In particular, over 200 people were on the train, and 18 were in the carriage hit by one of the Russian drones. Overall, this attack involving three drones has so far resulted in four confirmed deaths. My condolences to all the families and loved ones. Rescue teams are still searching for four more people, and two others have been injured. Russia must be held accountable for what it is doing. And this means responsibility not only for strikes against our people, against our life, but for the very ability to carry out such attacks. The Russians have significantly increased their capacity to kill, their capacity to terrorize. They are investing in the progress of terror. And our task – and this should unite all decent people around the world – is to ensure progress in the protection of life. This is possible through pressure on Russia. This is possible by punishing Russia for its actions. This is possible through support for Ukraine. I thank everyone who does not remain silent when they see what Russian terrorists are doing.